But this would not have been the case with Adam and Eve, had they continued in their innocency. They were full of innocent confidence in their God. Therefore whenever they wished to devote themselves to the procreation of children, they would have come together, not maddened with that lust which now reigns in our leprous flesh, but with an admiration of the ordinance of God, in obedience to God and in the worship of God; and also with the same holy quietness and solemnity of mind, as that in which we go to hear the Word of God and to worship God. But all these things we have lost by sin, so that we can now only conceive of them and understand them negatively, not positively. For from the awful state of evil in which we now stand, we can only gather negatively an idea of the greatness of that good and that glory which we have lost. But we owe a deep debt of gratitude to God, even for the remnants of the original glory still left us, however corrupt the noble, wonderful and glorious work of generation now may be; of which both the Church and the State have need for the perpetuation of saints and of citizens. And it is a marvelous fact that in all the writers, of all tongues not one iota is found which sets forth the glory of that original nakedness, which is now through sin so filled with turpitude and shame; but which before sin entered into the world was so honorable and glorious. Here we have Moses alone as our great teacher, who however sets forth the whole matter in but very few, and those very simple words, teaching us that man, having fallen from faith, was filled with confusion, and that the glory of his organs of generation was changed into utter turpitude and ignominy, so that he was compelled to make coverings to hide them from sight. The Hebrew term HEGORAH, of which we here have the plural, properly signifies a girdle or apron-girt, so that we are to understand that these fig leaves covered the upper parts of the thighs all round in every part, in order that the part of the body which before sin was the most honorable, 1 Cor. 12:23, might now be covered as being the most uncomely and base, and utterly unworthy the sight of men. O how horrible was the fall by sin! For after it the eyes of man were so opened that what was before the most honorable and glorious, he now looks upon as most dishonorable and base.